One of the real strengths of Sheffield Girls’ is the continuous support that all pupils receive throughout their time with us, and beyond, for the future world of work.
At Sheffield Girls’ we are passionate about preparing our pupils to be independent young adults who have the knowledge, confidence and skills to:
Mrs Sarah Metcalfe-Murgatroyd, Head of Careers
Careers is embedded across the whole school, from Infants to Sixth Form, with our committed team of subject and pastoral staff all taking responsibility to prepare our students for their next steps. We understand that careers is not a stand alone subject but one that links to every aspect of our students’ journey.
This can be clearly seen in how Careers links to our school values:
Every single one of our pupils gets access to a careers service that spans the entire school and allows for unique advice and support.
Our younger years from Reception to Year 3 learn about jobs, money, rights and responsibilities in their PSHE lessons.
In Years 4 - 6, our pupils learn about money, laws, equality and first aid in their PSHE lessons. They also participate in the Girls of Steel badge, which focuses on developing independence, confidence, curiosity and other core skills.
In Year 7, our pupils get their first taste of dedicated subject days, letting our girls explore their favourite subject areas for themselves and learning more about specific careers stemming from those passions.
Our Year 8's take the Morrisby quiz, and complete a careers aspirations quiz.
Year 9 start thinking about careers through the lens of GCSE options. They revisit their Morrisby quiz, and explore future career options through dedicated subject days.
In Years 10 & 11, our pupils get careers support throughout their GCSE studies.
Year 10 have a dedicated careers lesson combining general studies, politics, careers research, employability skills, their digital footprint, challenging career stereotypes and developing their personal resilience.
Year 11 get support drafting their first CV, have their 1:1 Morrisby careers interview, and are talked through post 16 options with qualified and experienced teachers.
In Sixth Form, all our students have access to bespoke and flexible careers and post-18 support.
All our students receive extensive and step-by-step support when considering university, apprenticeships, gap years and more. We walk them through UCAS, university and job interview preparation, additional test support, and more. They have the opportunity to meet alumnae who have wide and diverse working backgrounds.
We develop our students' financial literacy, contributions to wards the community, setting personal targets, driver awareness, and mental health.
We get to know our students as individuals and understand they will not all want to take the same pathways. Our pupils have access to 1:1 careers support at every stage of their journey.
As Head of Careers, Mrs Metcalfe-Murgatroyd has previously been a Head of Sixth Form, and Senior Leader. She has over a decade of experience leading careers support. She was asked to speak on a national training video created by the Careers Development Institute. Our Careers programme and advice is unbiased and continually evolving to ensure our pupils and parents are kept up to date with the ever changing landscape of opportunities.
We understand that some pupils will require specialist advice and access to opportunities, depending on their area of interest. We have excellent links with a wide range of employers and are constantly widening our links. All our Sixth Form students have unique access to the GDST Alumnae network and database.
We are proud to be one of the only schools in the country to have achieved the Careermark Gold Award which is a national accreditation of outstanding practice.
We are huge supporters of the Gatsby Benchmarks. These are a series of principles, encouraged by the Department for Education as excellent practice when it comes to careers. We are fully meeting all eight benchmarks.
Our Destination Data is continuously outstanding. We have a 100% success rate in terms of Year 13 students progressing on to their first choice for Post 18 destinations. In 2021, 95% of these were university based, including Oxford, Cambridge and top Russell Group Universities including a vast range of subjects including:
Pharmacology, Marketing, Engineering, Maths, Chemistry, Midwifery, Physiotherapy, Economics, Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Science, Languages, English Literature, Geography, Physics and ‘Arts and Sciences’.
We are also starting to see more students decide to take alternative Post 18 routes; for example a Finance Degree linked to PricewaterhouseCooper and an apprenticeship with Ernest Young as well as Pilot Training. This tells us that we are keeping our students up to date with all the routes open to them.
